Ganga-Sagar Mela

Kapil Muni Temple at Sagardwip

Today is Makar Sankranti; a day when the sun makes a transition northwards to Capricorn from Sagittarius (Read more in This is Utkarsh Speaking: Makara Sankranti )

Besides maker sankranti, this day is also known for the famous Ganga-Sagar mela, a fair which is second only to the famous Kumbh Mela (For more on Kumbha Mela, This is Utkarsh Speaking: Kumbh Mela). Ganga-sagar mela, or the fair of the river Ganga and the sea, is however an annual event, unlike the Kumbh Mela. Ganga-sagar mela is held at Sagardwipa, the confluence of the river Ganga and the Bay of Bengal and on this day millions of devotees take a dip at the holy confluence to seek salvation from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth.

Not far from the confluence is a temple dedicated to Kapil Muni and the pilgrims make it a point to visit the temple after taking a holy dip at the confluence. Let us know Kapil muni a little better.

According to a myth, King Sagar of Ikshvaku dynasty of Ayodhya had organized ninety-nine Ashwamedha yagnas. During the hundredth one, the sacrificial horse was let loose, as was the practice. The horse was followed by sixty thousand sons of King Sagar, who fought the opponents valiantly and had made King Sagar the head of a huge empire. Seeing King Sagar presiding over a massive empire, Indra felt intimidated and he hid the horse inside Kapil Muni’s ashram, who was meditating at that moment. When the sons saw the horse at the ashram, they assumed that the muni had stopped their horse. They were

Kapilmuni idol at the temple

angry, but since they could not kill a sage, they started to disturb him. This angered Kapil muni and cursed them to be burnt to ashes and within no time, the sons were a heap of ashes.

Anshuman, the grandson of King Sagar learnt about the death of his father and uncles and approached Kapil muni to seek a way for their salvation. Kapil Muni suggested that the only way to the salvation of their souls, was by getting the river Ganga to flow on earth, however that would need to propitiate the holy trinity and other deities too. Later, Bhagirath, the only great-grandson of King Sagar decided to perform the final rites of the sons of King Sagar.

Bhagirath undertook severe penance to appease all the gods and finally Ganga agreed to descend on earth. However, her torrential force needed to be held; else all on earth would blow away in her forceful descent. Lord Shiva’s entangled hair was the only way, to arrest the force of the river, and by the time it managed to find its way out of his locks, the river would have lost its force significantly. Lord Shiva is thus referred to as Gangadhar, in this form, where he accepts Ganga in his locks.

Gangadhar

Before heading towards the sea, the river Ganga washed over the heap of ashes of King Sagar’s sons, leading to their salvation. It is said, that Kapil Muni had his ashram not far from the confluence. The local lore says that earlier the temple of Kapil muni was far away from the present day spot of the fair and the waters would recede on the Makar sankranti day enabling pilgrims to get a view of the temple. From the very next day of the sankranti, the waters would start moving in and the temple would be submerged for a year till the next sankranti. (There aren’t too many people alive to vouch for the veracity of this, though). Today, a permanent temple of Kapil Muni stands on firm ground. Ganga came to earth due to the efforts of Bhagirath and thus sometimes the river is also referred to as Bhagirathi.

An interesting aspect of this myth is that it was said that King Sagar had an ambition of become a Charavarti, one who is the ruler of a large empire, but had a tough time and failed in his final attempt. He had to bear the sad news of the death of his sixty thousand sons. His sixty thousand sons too had the same aggression of his. The grandsons of King Sagar, Anshuman and Dilip, undertook penances to get Ganga to flow on earth, but they too did not achieve their objective. Bhagirath, renounced everything and performed severe penance at the Himalayas and attained his objective as he was devoid of ego and greed. Many say that the later rulers of the Ikshvaku dynasty bore resemblance to Bhagirath, one of them being Ram of Ramayan.

Ganga-Sagar mela in West Bengal is considered to be one of the major festivals and pilgrims come from far and near. A popular adage says, ‘saare tirth baar-baar, ganga-sagar ek baar’, meaning all pilgrimages can be undertaken more than once, but ganga-sagar can be undertaken only once. While I am not sure if this has any religious reason to it, one thing for sure is that the infrastructure to reach and return from the pilgrim spot is extremely poor. The place has received no attention from the tourism perspective and everything is in a state of wanting. The religious significance and that too for only one day, with no decent and adequate accommodation facilities, the fair turns a nightmare at times.

But what are a few irritants on the way to achieve salvation? If Bhagirath could endure penances for his ancestors in the Himalayas, and get the heavenly Ganga to flow on earth, cant the modern day devotees undertake a few hardships to achieve their own salvation??

The Bizarre Tale of Oghavati

At the onset, let me mention that this myth is trifle disturbing. This tale is told by Bhishma while he was on the bed of arrows, to Yudhishtir, during the war at Kurukshetra, in the Anushasan Parva, of Mahabharata.

Oghavati, a princess was married to a learned sage, Sudarsana. Sudarsana had vowed to conquer death without leaving the path of a householder. He continued to lead a family life, while maintaining his vow. As a part of his vow, he told his wife, Oghavati, that it was their prime duty to be of service to any guest, whosoever came to their cottage, at whatever time and whatever be his need or request. If that meant that she had to offer herself to him, then so be it!

Death, who heard this, kept following Sudarsana wherever he went, hoping to find a loophole in his vow. One day, when Sudarsana was out collecting firewood, a Brahmin guest came to the cottage and sought to be welcomed as a true householder would do. Oghavati welcomed him and offered him water and comfort. She then asked if he needed anything more. The guest replied that he wanted her and as part of the tradition, she should not object to it. Oghavati, tried to offer other alternatives to keep her virtue, but the guest was determined that nothing but her would suffice. It was at this moment, that Oghavati remembered her husband’s words, and reluctantly gave in. Both the guest and Oghavati went to bed together.

Just when the guest had finished making love, Sudarsana arrived and called for Oghavati, but Oghavati was too ashamed to respond to him as she felt that she was defiled and not worthy of her husband, as she was touched by another man. After repeated calling for his wife, the guest from inside the cottage replied that he was a guest and his wife was catering to his bodily needs and that he would have to wait.

Death who was stalking Sudarsana found his chance of the vow being broken and at the slightest tinge of anger or jealousy; it would club him to death. But Sudarsana, without any tinge of jealousy replied that he would wait till they were done and he also hoped that he had enjoyed the act. He also mentioned that he was glad that he was of some help and service to the Brahman guest.

Just then a gush of wind came from the cottage and he heard a voice saying that the guest was none other than the Lord Dharma and that he had arrived to test him and being pleased with him, Sudarsana had conquered death (Dharma being same as Yama/Death). He further proclaimed that Oghavati was one of the most chaste woman on earth and was protected by the virtues and qualities of devotion to her husband. From then onwards, half of her would remain with Sudarsana and the other half would flow as a river, named after her, Oghavati (sometime mentioned as the river Sarasvati), which would help people purify them of their sins.

I did mention at the onset that this was a trifle disturbing as a myth. If we try to unravel the reason of this myth, then one can broadly surmise that a guest is an important person and that he or she should be looked after, as gods sometimes take the form of guests. This goes well with the concept of Atithi devo bhava. So far so good. But there are deeper connotations. To prove that god could take the form of a guest and so the guest should be taken care of, there could have been a rather different myth and not necessarily like the one above.

While Dr. S. Dange had dissected this myth very differently as a study of human-morph, the union of river and fire, etc., ¹ for me, the myth raises many an uncomfortable question. Whose test was it, Sudarsana’s or Oghavati’s? By Oghavati reluctantly offering herself to the guest, how did Sudarsana benefit (conquering of death)? Was this perpetuated by a certain class of people to benefit them, as and when they visit someone’s place?

If all myths have a social cause and the way it was told to Yudhishtir, raises some more questions - Was this myth told to Yudhishtir to extol the virtues of Dharma (who also happened to be Yudhishtir’s father)? Was it told to justify the fame of the river Oghavati that bathing in it could rid one of one’s sins, like they do with many other rivers? Did it imply that the sacrifices of a wife could lead to virtues for the husband? Or simply put, did it hint at a case for sex hospitality?

The last seems to be an issue which has a number of cases in Mahabharata, the other being the case of Kunti. Kunti was left to serve Sage Durvasas for a year and she was told that no request, whatsoever, of the sage should be turned down. She was rewarded with an incantation to call for any god when she wanted to. Why would a learned sage give such a ‘blessing’ to a virgin girl? Wasn’t it out of place, even if we see it as a need of the narrative later?

Many have said that the tale of Oghavati directly and that of Kunti indirectly hinted at the presence of sex hospitality in the society, which probably suited a certain class of people and extolling virtues could only make their demands more acceptable, even if there was reluctance. Not to be overlooked is the fact that in both the cases, the guests were Brahmins.

Mahabharat raises many questions, and quite often uncomfortable ones. Not all have answers. The authors of such epics probably wanted people at different times to discuss them and arrive at their own answers, suiting the milieu, if it does at all!

¹ Myths from Mahabharat, By Dr. S. Dange

New Beginnings

Janus on a Roman coin

The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. The interesting aspect of Janus was that he had two heads, not next to each other, but one behind the other, one facing the front and the other facing the back. The symbolism is very clear, that here was a god who could see both the past as well as the future.  Janus was worshiped during all the beginnings, like the beginning of the year, birth, marriage or an event which had significance in one’s life, besides the harvest.

Many have mentioned that he was the god of transitions, like the transition from primitive life to civilization, or childhood to adulthood, etc.

There is an interesting myth associated with Janus. It is said that during the when Rome was attacked by one of their enemies, the daughter of one of the guards, betrayed the country and guided them in the city. When they tried to cross a hill, Janus made a hot spring erupt under them whereby many were burnt to death and the rest fled. Since then as an acknowledgement of his ability to intervene, the gates of Rome were kept open during the times of war, and closed during peace.

Janus was initially depicted by a bearded face and a clean shaven face, the former implying the past year and the latter implying the New Year. However, many have opined that the bearded face stood for the Sun and the clean shaven for moon. What is interesting to note is that Janus was a mortal King of Rome and was deified after his death and surprisingly there is no counterpart of his in the Greek mythology.

This brings to another similar Egyptian deity, Aker, with a slight difference though.

Aker was an earth-deity, who was responsible for guarding the movement of sun, mainly the rising and the setting of the sun. Aker was depicted as two lions sitting with their backs to each other and both facing the opposite directions. However, since this had to do with the passage of sun, the two lions were known as Sef and Duau, meaning, yesterday and today.

Egyptians often kept statues of Aker in homes and tombs as they believed that Aker guarded the gates of morning and evening and would also guard the homes and tombs from evil spirits.

An interesting similarity, though not totally. What is past is for introspection and what is future is about expectation. Let us too look back and see what have we done that can be done differently with a better outcome and ensure that the future is better. Let our yesterday, enable us to improve our tomorrow.

Let us be our own Janus and Aker and life will be different!

Happy New Year!!!

Here’s wishing

all my readers

a very

happy new year!!

Sexual Misdemeanors by the High and Mighty

Seeing the recent spates of sexual misdemeanors, someone wondered aloud, “Is sex really that strong a lure? And if it is, why not go and ‘buy’ it, instead of behaving like an animal, or just risking some innocent’s life and reputation?”

A very valid question and I wonder, what makes men behave the way they do, especially those that are in a slightly elevated strata of the society. The news is when the predator is a respected, senior and well-to-do person of the society, who is more of an icon, but turns out to be no different from a lout.

Sex has been behind many an episode of misdemeanor and sex outside a legal relationship has always dominated the headlines. Going back to where I seek my answers, forceful sex has dominated many mythologies. Be it by Zeus in Greek mythology, who spared none, be it women or men, or the forced sex by Shiva on Mohini, the gods would always have their way.

But let me take a case here, which is not forced in the physical sense of the word, but forced, in the sense of-not-leaving-any-choice, but to comply. This is also a case of sex outside the ‘socially acceptable framework’ of society. Or was it forced? Decide after you read the story….

According to the epic Mahabharata, Satyavati was the adopted daughter of a fisherman. The story of her birth is as interesting as it can be and you can read about it in an earlier article “The Unwanted Girl Child” http://www.utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/search/label/Satyavati . For the present, it should suffice to say that she was found inside a fish and was adopted by the fisherman who found her. Since she was found inside a fish, a terrible odour emanated from her, due to which she was also known as Matsyagandha, ‘smell of a fish’.

It was due to this problem of hers, that she didn’t have many friends and spent most of the time alone ferrying people from across the Kalindi river. Once her passenger happened to be sage Parashar, a powerful and well-known ascetic. He was smitten by her looks, despite the odour and insisted on making love to her then and there.

Satyavati, a virgin till then, was taken aback, but was unable to decline. She reasoned with the sage, that the terrible smell emanating from her was something that even she detested and under such circumstances, she would not be able to comply with his request. The sage then through his powers, removed her fishy odour and made her smell of musk, and named her Yojanagandha, one whose fragrance can be smelt from yojanas (1 yojana was about 9 miles). Satyavati was still reluctant and said that if they did make love, she would lose her virginity, and he being an ascetic, would not marry her either, then how would she face the world? To this sage Parashar promised her, she would regain her virginity after the act and none would know. Satyavati tried again, saying that she was in the fertile period and if he made love to her, then she would conceive. In such a situation how she would face the world with a child. Sage Parashar, who was determined to have his way, promised that as soon as they were done, she would give birth to a child who would grow up immediately and go his own way, with none knowing about it! Satyavati made one last effort and said that all that was fine, but it was broad daylight and there was a possibility of someone seeing them, which would be bad for her reputation, besides the risk of the boat capsizing. Sage Parashar was beginning to lose his cool and suggested that she take the boat to the centre of the river, close to an island. Through his powers, he created a dense mist and made the boat and them invisible in the dense mist.

All this left no choice form Satyavati, but to give in.

Soon after, they make love, Satyavati gives birth to a child who grows up immediately to be a man, and comes to be known as Krishna (dark) Dwaipanya, one who is born in an island, who goes on to be better known as sage Ved Vyasa. Vyasa goes away with sage Parashar and Satyavati goes back home and when asked about her changed odour, she says that it was the blessings of the sage.

This is an interesting myth, which has two facets to it.

First, is the helplessness of a woman, who makes all efforts to ward off the advances of a man, who as in this case was probably fit to be her father. A powerful man, insists on making love to a virgin, but is clear that he would not marry, and goes out of his way to use his powers to fulfill his desires, is not something that is different from many of the recent instances that we have seen. The girl, who is helpless, makes all efforts to escape, but is unable, as she is in a precarious situation, of being alone, in the middle of a river, which seems quite allegorical in itself. She has no witness to stand by her, as the powerful sage had created an envelope of mist, for none to see, which is the case in many instances, even in modern times – no witness against the high and mighty.

The second aspect is the clever usage of the advances made by a powerful person, as done by Satyavati. She ensures that her odour is removed, her virginity restored and her reputation intact. Some versions even say that she negotiated eternal youth and beauty with the sage. Many might see this as opportunism, or simply put smart usage of the situation by the victim.  Mythical times were different from present times, so I am not sure, how this could be utilized today, if at all.

How should the world see this? Was this forced? Was it rape or was it consensual-sex? If one asks sage Parashar, it was consensual, since he did not force himself on her and she had agreed to her advances. If one asked Satyavati, she would say, it was forced as she had no choice and she had no option. The world then never raised a finger on sage Parashar for his act and nor has the world ever bothered to debate this from his angle. Sage Parashar never had to bring this to the public notice, but Satyavati had to bring Sage Vyasya in the picture when her son died without an heir. She had to relate the incident to Bhishma, who supposedly kept quiet about it, but one can imagine Satyavati’s embarrassment in talking about her pre-marital sex and the resultant child.

Have times changed much? Just as sage Parashar went his way after the act, the high and mighty of the present day society too go scot free. The only change if at all is that they do get maligned for a while, if the woman musters guts and courage, but then its business as usual. Court visits, mud-singling on the women’s character, unwanted media-glare, and when all fails; there still is the option of out-of-court settlement.

What do you say?